Gender of Nouns In Russian Language

How is your progress in learning Russian language? If you learn Russian yourself, you can check out the 7 best way to learn Russian for free or 14 best way to learn it online. Talking about the gender of a noun, many languages in the world have a gender for a noun. One of them is Russian. It’s very important because many aspects of Russian language such as pronouns, verbs and tenses depend on the gender of the noun. There are three genders in Russian: masculine, feminine, and neutral. The noun is divided into two categories, animate and inanimate. The animate noun is the living object, like human and animal. The inanimate noun is the nonliving object, like stone, car, and home. The spesific rule about gender of nouns as you can see below.

The Rule For Masculine Noun

Most masculine nouns have a consonant ending, or the last letter -й

For Example:

Сын – Son

Берег – Bank, shore, coast

Снег – Snow

Волос – Hair

Хлеб – Bread

Музей – museum

There is a masculine noun with letter ending –a, –я, it refers to men

For Example:

Папа– Father

Дядя– Uncle

Мужчина – Man

Дедушка – Grandfather

Саша – Sasha

There isa masculine noun that ends with a soft sign –ь

For Example:

Король – King

Учитель – Teacher

Февраль – February

Выключатель – Switch

Дождь – Rain

Note: If the word has a suffix –тель, it is a masculine noun.

There are some exeption in masculine noun.

When we are talking about город ‘city’, such as: Джакарта, Токио, and Чешме. The cities are masculine because they are part of the город (masculine noun)

When we are talking about ветер ‘wind’, торнадо – tornado. It is a masculine.

Кофе in Russian language is a masculine even thought the last letter is – е

The Rule For Feminine Noun

Mostly, the feminine noun in Russian have the last letter –aor-я

For Example:

Улыбка – Smile

Сестра – Sister

Станция – Station

Музыка – Music

Птица – Bird

Тетя – Aunt

Девочка – Girl

There isa feminine noun that ends with a soft sign –ь

For Example:

Мать – Mother

Молодость– Youth

Ночь – Nigh

Кровать – Bed

Площадь – Square

Note: When the word has suffix –ость, it is masculine nouns.

In addition, some feminine nouns have different endings depending on the main words

For example:

медресе – madrasah, feminine because that is a школа (school)

авеню – avenue, because it is a улица (street)

The Rule For Neutral Nouns

Most neutral nouns have last letter:-е, -о, -ё

For Example:

Зеркало – Mirror

Искусство – Art

Сердце – Heart

Бельё – Linen

Отношение – Relationship

If the words are borrowed from other languages and have the last ending -и, -у, -ю, -э

For Example:

Такси – Taxi

Каноэ – Canoe

Меню – Menu

That is the rule of masculine, feminine, and neutral nouns. The more you read, write and practice, you will find it easier to know the gender of a noun. For practice, you can try dividing each gender from a list of 150 basic Russian words for beginners. After knowing the difference in gender, you can relate it with Russian cases, like genitive, accusative, and dative case. You can also find tips on how to learn Russian language easily in a day here.